Manaphy, The Seafaring Pokémon. It is born with a wondrous power that lets it bond with any kind of Pokémon. Born on a cold seafloor, it will swim great distances to return to its birthplace. Water makes up 80% of its body. This Pokémon is easily affected by its environment.

Overview

Manaphy was always a weird Mythical Pokémon. It has the odd ability that allows it to breed with Ditto to create another Pokémon and it comes from hatching a special egg. Like the other Mythicals up to Victini, it had the spread 100 across all stats which is solid and allows it to be somewhat versatile, but Manaphy in general just lacks the versatility to be able to do much better than any other Water-type Pokémon, of which there is an abundancePositives
+ Its stats of 100 across the board are definitely solid, but not overly impressive.
+ Tail Glow is amazing
+ Its ability can be very useful in the rain, removing any status condition
+ It's not Phione

Negatives
- Its movepool is a bit limited, despite giving some good coverage
- Its stats, while solid, do mean it is often outclassed in this day & age
- Often suffers from fourth moveslot syndrome

Abilities

Hydration: All status problems: Burn, Paralysis, Sleep, Frozen and Poison, are healed when raining. - Not that you have a choice, but this ability is fairly decent with rain support. Being able to remove status conditions is always handy

This is pretty much your bog-standard Manaphy set. You have the Tail Glow move, which is absolutely phenomenal, taking Manaphy's Special Attack up by 3 stages. This means you can max it in two turns which can be absolutely brutal. Ice Beam is always a fantastic coverage move and helps take down Grass, Flying and Dragon-type threats. Scald is another standard option, hitting decently hard with a chance of burn. Then, for your final slot, you have to decide what's best for your Manaphy. Hidden Power Fire gives some good coverage, as does Psychic and Energy Ball, while Rain Dance can set off the Hydration ability and heal Manaphy of status, but whichever you pick, you just know you're going to come across situations where you'll think "I should have brought the other"

This isanother common Manaphy set. The crux of the set is Calm Mind to help get Manaphy's Special Attack up, as well as its Special Defense. Due to those boosts, you'll probably want to shore up its physical Defense as well. Rain Dance will give you the added Water boost as well as, thanks to Hydration, heal status afflictions which is great to work in conjunction with its next move, Rest. Getting full recovery is a very useful thing and to remove the Sleep condition benefits it greatly. Finally, Scald is Manaphy's only damaging attack here and will do significant damage and possibly inflict with a burn.

Other Options

-Dazzling Gleam, Shadow Ball & Signal Beam could be used to give some additional coverage
-Water Pulse, while hitting weaker, can inflict Confusion which is less reliable a status as Burn, but could still mess with an opponent
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VGC, Double, & Triple Battle Options

While it is unfortunately banned in VGC 2016, Manaphy can be a scary Pokemon to deal with in doubles formats where mythical Pokemon are legal. It has solid all-around stats, but its signature move is what makes it such a threat. After just one Tail Glow, Manaphy can be set up to sweep, especially with the proper support to keep it alive.

This set's EVs allow Manaphy to maximize its sweeping potential. A Modest nature gives it slightly more power, but a Timid nature allows it to outspeed as many opponents as possible, and speed-tie other positive nature base 100s. Hydration is its only ability, but can cure any status problem if the rain is up, especially paralysis or sleep. Manaphy doesn't really need a boosting item since it will be trying to set up Tail Glow anyway, so the Sitrus Berry helps keep it alive and increase its bulk. Manaphy really appreciates support strategies like redirection or Fake Out to help it set up and be able to freely attack.

Setting up by using Tail Glow should be the goal of this set. With just one Tail Glow, Manaphy can get to +3 special attack and instantly become a threat to OHKO a wide variety of Pokemon. Scald is generally its best STAB move, and of course the chance to burn makes it nearly broken. Ice Beam is for coverage, allowing Manaphy to hit grass and dragon types for super-effective damage. Protect is necessary in doubles to stall out an opponents' speed control, keep Manaphy safe from attacks while its partner deals with a threat, or dodge giving away free damage from Fake Out.

Other Options

-Safety Goggles allows Manaphy to ignore Spore while it sets up, and also Rage Powder from support Pokemon (namely Amoongus in both situations) who may try to draw away your single-target attacks while the other opponent attacks Manaphy. The Goggles can also help Manaphy ignore Hail and Sandstorm damage that could potentially chip away at its health.
-Manaphy has a number of strong coverage options, including Energy Ball, Shadow Ball, Psychic, and Dazzling Gleam, though these are all generally inferior to Ice Beam, so you likely have to ignore Protect to fit one of these on.
-Surf, Blizzard, and Icy Wind are Manaphy's best options for moves that do spread damage, but each comes with drawbacks. Surf will also hit Manaphy's teammate, so it may be a good idea to have a Pokemon with an ability like Water Absorb or Storm Drain on the team to put next to Manaphy. Blizzard does not have perfect accuracy, although this can be remedied with Hail or Gravity support. Icy Wind has the added bonus of dropping the speed of opponents, but the power is much lower than Ice Beam and Blizzard.
-Rain Dance can help activate Manaphy's ability and support the team if other Pokemon can take advantage of the rain, but it's really hard to fit on a doubles set without giving up Protect.
-As the VGC community got to see at a few big tournaments in 2015 with Smeargle (and Geomancy), Heart Swap can be a sneaky way to pass on a +3 (or +6) special attack boost to a teammate. It's pretty gimmicky though as Manaphy can do just fine sweeping on its own with the boosts.

Countering Manaphy

For Manaphy to work well, it needs to set up and if you can stop the set up, either through Taunt or by using a move such as Mist or Haze to reset stat changes, then you have nerfed Manaphy somewhat. Controlling the weather to be other than rain is also another way to deal with Manaphy. Weather wars may be an old thing (outside of use of Primals in VGC), but it's a fantastic way of shutting down Manaphy. From there, you just need to hit hard and fast with Super Effective attacks. Mega Sceptile, Celebi, Electivire, Raichu, Magnezone etc. can all make quick work of Manaphy despite its strong defenses..

Locations in Games

Ruby/Sapphire/Emerald: Not in game

FireRed/LeafGreen: Not in game

Colosseum/XD: Not in game

Diamond/Pearl/Platinum: Hatch from Pokémon Ranger Egg

HeartGold/SoulSilver: Hatch from Pokémon Ranger Egg

Black/White: Event only

Black 2/White 2: Event only

X/Y: Event only

Omega Ruby/Alpha Sapphire: Event only

Animé Appearences

Manaphy has made a few appearances in the anime. In its main appearance, one hatched from an Egg and bonded with May. May had to protect it from Phantom and return it to the ocean.